Junior Hockey: Warriors comeback bid falls short against Tahoe

BREMERTON – The result might have been the same for West Sound, but the Warriors took a step toward fighting through a late-season trial that has the junior hockey team limping toward the playoffs.

West Sound lost to Lake Tahoe 9-7 as the Icemen swept the Western States Hockey League Northwest Division three-game series Sunday afternoon at the Bremerton Ice Center. It was West Sound’s eighth loss in a row.

Warriors coach Ty Smith said he was proud of how well the team competed.

“It’s like in life, a little adversity comes your way you’ve got two options,” Warriors coach Ty Smith said, “you can give in or push through it. That’s all we’ve been talking about is pushing through, and I was proud of them going down five nothing and making a game of it. It could easily have ended 15-1.”

Dmitri Munirov had a hat trick and an assist to lead West Sound with four points while Bryce Ebert had three assists and Michael Perez added two assists. Also scoring for West Sound were Ty-Andrew Traynor and Alec Johnson.

The Warriors fell behind 4-0 before Munirov scored his first goal with 57 seconds left in the first.

West Sound traded goals with Tahoe in the second, inching within one-goal, 5-4, before the Icemen went back on top, 6-4. Again, West Sound came back, but Tahoe was there to answer. The Icemen never pulled ahead again by more than two goals, keeping the game agonizing close but West Sound couldn’t get the game-winning goal.

“I was disappointed in the fact we ended up down five-nothing, but we scratched and clawed our way back,” Smith said. “It is encouraging. They wanted to win today, and they competed. The biggest thing is they didn’t want to get blown out.

“They wanted to show we are still a good hockey team and we can compete. We’re still a scary animal when we’re down.”

West Sound will travel to Bellingham Friday to face the Blazers, then host Bellingham Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Their last regular-season game will be Sunday, March 11 at noon at Bellingham.

In this article

Annette Griffus is a multiple award-winning journalist with 24 years in the newspaper industry, including the last 17 years at the Kitsap Sun in Bremerton, Washington. Annette covered everything from youth sports to high school, collegiate athletics, professional sports including the Olympics in 2004 in Athens, Greece.
She graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in journalism from Eastern Washington University in 1997, and in 2015 she completed her Bachelors of Science degree Summa Cum Laude in Health and Wellness from Kaplan University.
Also in 2015, Annette completed her first triathlon and again in 2016.